Conservative Nintendo: Misjudging for Profit
Throughout Nintendo's history as a game hardware and software manufacturer, they have shown an impressive amount of conservatism. Always cautious about their next move, for the most part it has been an effective means of bringing in profits. Or has it? With the release of technology so distruptive as the Wii, the industry is applauding Nintendo for being so daring. So then why is Nintendo still conservative when it comes to anything involving Internet connectivity? The DS had the dreaded friend code system, which has returned on the Wii. The Gamecube had the completely ignored network adaptor, even the SNES had the XBAND which went absolutely nowhere (although, granted it was not released by Nintendo themselves). Why release something if you don't put your energy behind it? What drives Nintendo to be so lackadaisical when it comes to anything online in a world where we have the excellence that is Xbox Live? Welcome to today's rant.
Nintendo's friend code system is the equivalent of a social DRM. They are essentially preventing you from anyone online that you haven't already traded friend codes with. On the Nintendo DS, that meant for each individual online game, in order to interact with other people online besides just playing a match with them, you had to exchange friend codes. You couldn't just go to a random town in Animal Crossing, you had to know the person, presumably to prevent kids from being victimized by some crazy child molestor running around their Animal Crossing towns, painting penises on the ground and leaving lewd letters buried in the sand. This made it incredibly tedious to use the wi-fi connectivity function, and many people just gave up. The majority of DS games that use the wi-fi network are first party Nintendo games, and even then the connectivity is considered an afterthought. There are currently 24 wi-fi enabled titles, and a quick glance at Nintendo's wi-fi page shows me that a grand total of 100 people have logged in to the Animal Crossing servers in the last hour. Compared to the amount of people who use Xbox Live regularly, that's just sad. What if Nintendo had a hub, a server people can log in to to find other Nintendo DS wi-fi users and connect with them? Kids are savvy enough these days to find their friends on MySpace, and they are just as exposed to Internet predators there as they would be in any sort of Nintendo authorized hub. Even with the restrictions, there are already ways for people to expose children to offensive content on the wi-fi connection, with the ability to draw your own emblem in Mario Kart DS. I've seen swastikas, bad words and genetalia from every angle imaginable. So what is Nintendo so afraid of? Certainly, you'd think they are afraid of our litigous society, and how parents might see that their kids are racing karts with a supposed member of the KKK and sue Nintendo. Considering most video game related lawsuits are between companies, that doesn't really seem logical.
Xbox Live is wildly successful. It does online gaming right, it provides people with a scorecard for them to show their friends, it has built-in voice chat, and it's super easy to use. Nintendo seems obsessed with making things as easy to pick up and play as possible, especially with the Wii remote. You don't even have to press any buttons to operate the most basic game in Wii Sports (Tennis), yet adding someone to your Wii address book and sharing your Wii number is pretty complicated. You have to go to the Wii message board, open up the address book, flip through a couple pages, and find the long string of numbers that are impossible to remember. There's no easy way to search for friends, you need to use an outside service to connect (like sending friends your Wii code via email). This convoluted process seems completely out of character for Nintendo, and in my opinion there is no reason for it besides laziness.
Nintendo is misjudging their market's needs. They are telling people what they need, instead of listening. The Wii remote is innovative, yes. The Wii console itself has tons of possibility, but if Nintendo doesn't start listening to people's complaints about the system and actually DOING something about it, the online functionality won't be embraced by developers and it will go to the wayside. Just like the Gamecube's network adaptor (which worked online with a grand total of one game) no one bought in to it, so they didn't take the time to actually develop for it. The procedure was too complicated for the average user to set up.
The Virtual Console is a great example of how Nintendo is playing it safe, and how they are going to eventually just piss off their user base. We are seeing staggered releases for old games that require basically zero development time. Nintendo is just sitting on these titles for no other reason than to stagger their releases for marketing purposes. We have seen ONE Nintendo 64 title so far, and about one Super Nintendo title a month. Consider the product life of the console, the Wii will probably be around for the next five years until Nintendo comes up with something new and exciting. If we see one N64 game a month and one SNES game a month for the next 5 years, that's only 60 games each. There are plenty more games in both libraries. What if the very LAST game to be released for the Virtual Console is the one I always wanted to pick up? This just isn't going to cut it. The releases tend to be what Nintendo considers to be classics, as well. I don't know who they polled about this, but Ice Climbers and Balloon Fight aren't classics, Nintendo. They are just old. You have been trying to shove these old lame NES titles down our throat over and over again and no one is biting. Because they are horrible. We need to see higher quality releases more often. I know for a fact that people would buy them.
Nintendo needs to look at a couple different existing business models and follow them for the Wii if it is going to get any better. Xbox live for the online capabilities, and the iTunes music store for the Virtual Console. We want gamertags. We want to be able to brag to our friends easily about our gaming accomplishments and we want to be rewarded for them. Once I complete Zelda Twilight Princess, for example, it would be awesome if the Wii recognized that accomplishment and gave me 100 free Wii points. It needs to be easier for people to find people to play games online, which will help developers want to actually create games that go online. As it stands, I see only first party Nintendo games really taking off this way, and their novelty will wane and die just like the novelty of going online with the Nintendo DS. The virtual console needs to be filled with games. Put the Ice Climbers and the Baseballs up right now to make it look like there is a huge selection, and save the AAA titles for your staggered launch marketing. Right now, it looks like a ghost town on the VC list and that can't be helping. I get excited each monday for the Virtual Console updates, only to be met with crap I don't want to buy. Urban Champion for the NES? Come on, Nintendo. Give me Super Mario World, Actraiser, Final Fantasy, Castlevania 3, Startropics, Earthbound! At this rate, we won't see these games for years. By that time, I may be completely bored with my Wii and just won't care anymore.
I really hope that won't happen.
